Dubai, UAE:  Tennis Emirates has officially launched the 2009/10 tennis season today which also marks the first day of the new tennis strategy of the association to revamp participation and activities all around the country. Tennis Emirates unveiled its new logo, to demonstrate a new identity.

Dr. Abdullah Al Nuaimi, Secretary General of Tennis Emirates, addressed the media today to unveil the new logo and said: “After receiving previous approvals from the President of Tennis Emirates, His Highness Sheikh Hasher bin Juma Al Maktoum and the Ministry of Sports & Youth Welfare, we created a development strategy which will immediately have a positive impact on the tennis community. To launch a new logo, designed by Mediapro our strategic management and marketing partner, is just the perfect way to show that Tennis Emirates is setting new standards and is committed to improving the game of tennis on all levels.

The logo is a reflection of how we want to be perceived: strong and energetic while still simple and easy to remember. And we believe we have just done that. Congratulations to all of us.

Dr Abdullah Al Nuaimi also addressed the media by explaining the key strategic elements for the months to come: “First and foremost, we need to know who is doing what in tennis in the UAE therefore from today onwards we are requesting all players, coaches, officials and all private and government institutions providing services to the tennis community to join the membership program. Application forms will be available on our website http://www.uae-tennis.com for download or direct processing and payment through credit cards.

Secondly, Tennis Emirates is committed to roll out several grassroot tennis initiatives which will include the creation of national training centers for juniors in the different Emirates, linking school tennis programs to afternoon programs in established local clubs, and encourage new players to try our sport and join programs such as the ITF endorsed “Play&Stay”. Some of these programs will then be carried out through our affiliated institutions and academies.

Finally, we have linked our strategy closely to the requirements within players development and detection from the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the direction of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Welfare and the UAE National Olympic Committee (NOC) to develop performance sports in the UAE,” stated Dr. Al Nuaimi. “For this reason our competition schedule will run from 1 October 2009 until 30 September 2010 and unlike in the past with the majority of event clustered around late spring time.”

The new competition schedule is based on five (5) Circuits for juniors and adults: the 8, 9, and 10 “School Circuit”, the 12 & 14 “Development Circuit”, the 16 & 18 “Junior Circuit”, the “Open Men’s and Women’s Circuit” and a “Veterans Circuit” for ladies over 30 and men over 40 & 50.

Slah Bramly, Technical Director of Tennis Emirates, explained that “all circuits aim to encourage players to participate in singles and doubles, as this will automatically support the basic Team Tennis formats of the ITF, the Davis Cup and FED Cup events, which consists of combined singles and doubles competitions.”

Our target is to give players as much opportunity to participate. With separate junior circuits we give players a chance to play different events at different dates while at the same time we give more organizers a chance to host national competitions,” said Bramly.

All open tournaments sanctioned by Tennis Emirates will count automatically towards the UAE National Tennis Ranking. It results in singles and doubles will count towards a combined national ranking with the top 8 ranked players qualifying for the season ending Masters. All junior events will award points for the national ranking and trophies for the winners while all adult categories will offer minimum prize money and ranking points.  “Our aim is to organize at least 40 national competitions this season along with the international ITF junior events and veterans tournaments which are traditionally organized by the federation”, said Bramly. “Hopefully by the end of the first season we have a national tennis ranking with more than 1,000 ranked players and competitions taking place in all Emirates.”

“We have very ambitious goals and things will take time to implement but we are on the right track. Through the membership program and the sanction obligation of all national and international events, Tennis Emirates will have strong impact on the game and will be able to support and provide many services to our affiliated members. 

The administration of membership program, national tennis ranking and the competition schedule will be managed by MEDIAPRO Middle East, our strategic marketing partner, which is also in charge of setting up a national sponsorship program to open new revenue streams for the association desperately needed to support the grassroot programs and the development of talent in the country.

Our first activity will be the hosting the 8th Dubai ITF Junior Tennis Championship, this time hosted at the Aviation Club from 19-24 October. More than 44 countries have already registered for the competition, which is part of the world junior tennis tour organized by the ITF. The Dubai event has always attracted the best international 18 7 Under junior players and has already received 95 boys and 44 girls entries for this grade IV event,” mentioned Slah Bramly.